Tips To Bring Your Next Presentation To Life because if you’re in front of a group of potential clients at a networking meeting you want to not only teach them valuable implementable tips, but you want to entertain! How can you make your next presentation memorable? Hint: Remember, it’s not all about you — even if your’e the one imparting the information!
Tips To Bring Your Next Presentation To Life
- Be enthusiastic. Whether you’re a pool service pro, a septic tank cleaner or a Fortune 500 CEO you need to be enthusiastic about your subject and find a way to bring even the driest of subjects to life. Bring props if they help support your topic and if they are interesting. Don’t stare at a screen and read word for word from your slides. If you’re doing that, you may as well hand the slides to the attendees and let them read at their leisure.
- Mine your memories for information that only you know about your subject matter. Remember, you’re the speaker and that means you will be seen as the expert. Go beyond the superficial and give the audience something to truly think about. Look for intriguing angles on a subject about which “everyone” may know.
- Ditch the jargon. Believe me, you will not impress your audience if you use “industry speak” and pepper your talk with acronyms. Speak plainly. In this instance, industry speak and acronyms will not make you look like an expert, it will make you look like a show-off. If your audiences’ eys are glazing over every time you toss out an industry specific term, you need to get back to basics and keep your speech simple and relatable.
- Move around the room. It is comfortable for most people to stand in one place and stand behind a podium. I urge you to get out, walk around, make eye contact with the audience. Don’t read from your speech — practice before you attend the meeting so you can speak more naturally.
- Know how you operate. What works for one speaker will not work for another. You’ve been to events where the speaker focused solely on slides, others that used no visuals and others that had a combination of the two. Know what makes you most comfortable in sharing your expertise and embrace that as your speaking style. If you’re not a “funny guy” don’t attempt humor. Avoid potentially inflammatory comments. Keep to the topic about which you are speaking.
- Leave time for questions, but don’t be worried if your request of, “Does anyone have any questions?” is met with crickets. Many people won’t speak up in the group setting. If no one has a question, make certain you extend the invitation to, “Reach out to me any time if you do have questions.”
- Remember, the speech is about the audience. Give them something they can take back to their office and potentially implement. Regardless of your career path, if you’re speaking on a particular subject and if you have an audience, they are there to learn. Give them knowledge.
What do you do to prepare for a speech? How do you deliver your expertise? Are you looking for more speaking engagements? What are you doing to make that a reality?